Heroine Interview from Angel Falls by Connie Mann

This week I’m hosting Connie Mann with Angel Falls, Ruth Reid with An Angel by Her Side and Murray Pura withWhispers of a New Dawn. If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (March 31st) evening. 

Interview with the heroine: Angel Falls by Connie Mann

1. Regina da Silva, tell me the most interesting thing about you.

Oh, I don’t know that I’m all that interesting, but I have a wonderful job. My best friend Irene and I are co-directors of an orphanage here in Porto Alegre, Brazil. During the day, we care for the children who live with us, and at night, we go out on the streets with a meal and blankets to try to help the ones we can’t take home with us. I hate that I can’t save them all, but I do my best to give them love and hope and let them know someone cares about them. The orphanage founder rescued us when we were teens. Now we try to do the same.

2.  What do you do for fun?

Whenever we get the chance, Irene and I spend a few minutes at a coffee shop. We’ve been best friends since we were street children ourselves. This is our chance to be just friends, not co-workers.

3.  What do you put off doing because you dread it?

I hate doing paperwork of any kind, especially the financial stuff. I leave that to Irene.

4.  What are you afraid of most in life?

Men scare me, you know? Life on the streets wasn’t pretty and we did what we had to do to survive, Irene and I. I’m not proud of some of that and I still carry a switchblade in my pocket—just in case. I prefer to be around women and children.

5.  What do you want out of life?

I would love to be a mother, more than anything in this world. Physically, that’s not possible, not after what happened when I was a teen. Besides, children should be part of a family, loved and protected by two parents. Who would want to marry me?

6.  What is the most important thing to you?

Keeping the children safe, rescuing as many as I can. I don’t want any child to live through the childhood I did. I’d bring them all home with me if I could. It wrenches my heart and tears me up inside to leave even one behind.

7.  Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?

With the children, I don’t often have a spare minute to myself. So I read them stories during our classes at the orphanage. Early in the mornings, before they wake up, I try to read a few verses in my Bible.

8.  If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I would like to be less afraid.

9.  Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?

Out on the streets, dogs followed us around, hoping to steal our food, so we had to be careful. But one dog stayed with Irene and me for a few weeks. I loved him.

10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?

I would go back to when I was five, to the days with my family before my father left me to fend for myself on the streets. I would work harder, try harder, do whatever I had to, so that he wouldn’t abandon me. I still miss my family.